


A Death Courtesy Of The Little Lady

by Vasilisian



Series: Prompts and Drabbles [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Brief Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kimiko-chan is a pretty little lady, Past Child Abuse, and Zeke will cheerfully murder anyone that says otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 07:46:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10566801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vasilisian/pseuds/Vasilisian
Summary: Shinigami: Japanese word for God of DeathMost assassins have a certain set of standards they stick to, Zeke just so happened to have standards against the abuse of children. So when a little lady comes to him for help, who is he to refuse her the help so needs?





	1. The Little Lady Asks Death For A Favour

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tags because this story, while fun for me to write, might not be fun for you to read. Again, it was written in response to a promtp by writing-prompt-s, who really does have a very nice and helpful blog. The prompt I used will be in the End Notes, and yes. This is indeed not beta-read. Again.

Zeke wasn't a nice person.

Life had been harsh on him, and instead of using that as fuel to try and become a better man than his father, he choose instead to turn being a horrible person into a profitable business venture. At first he'd been little more than a thug, beating people up for food, clothed or money.

But as he'd gotten stronger, faster and meaner, he'd become more picky. Took only certain jobs, started charging more. Instead of getting a twenty for roughing up a cheating lover in some back alley, he'd become a hit-man of sorts, taking out members of opposing gangs for a couple hundred dollars.

Of course, that didn't work for too long as the gangs became frustrated at his lack to loyalty to anything but money, so they set him up for an ambush. Zeke hadn't been happy with that, and had let his displeasure show in the form of dozens of dead flunkies and some key components of each gang.

Knowing that trying that shit again would only invite trouble he couldn't be bothered dealing with, he instead offered his skills as a hit-man on an international scale. He was actually quite popular, since he wasn't in any data-bases thanks to his early life, he didn't even have a birth certificate since him mother had him in an alleyway.

The more money he earned, the better weapons he could buy and the more training he could pay for, which meant bigger and better jobs, which meant even more money. Crime really did pay, and the better he got at killing people, the more control he got over his contracts.

He didn't bother getting a handler, they would just be a weakness in the form of betrayal or leverage, and he was fully grown adult, he could do his own damn paper-work. Hell, he even paid taxes, although figuring out what kind of job would pay like his did, and then forging the paper-work took some work.

What? He might be a world-class assassin and hit-man, but he still had standards. Which is why when a little girl walked up to him in some shitty part of Tokyo with a worn bag filled with change and crumpled bills, he didn't immediately shoo her away.

She looked scared out her her mind, and the bruise on her face told him all he needed to know. She just stared at him when he actually stopped when she called for him, but Zeke had the patience of a priest by now, and he could wait here in the rain for hours if he had to.

But she was a scrappy little girl, and soon enough she gathered her courage. “I heard that there was a man here that would kill people for money.” She thrust the bag at him, obviously hoping that it would be enough to pay his rates, while the broken part of her whispered that nothing would be enough, that she would always be trapped.

He could see in her eyes that she had the last bit of her hope riding on this, and he really did have standards. Crushing the hope of a young abused girl was one of the things he refused to do, not because he couldn't, but because he shouldn't. This little conviction of his is what kept him human, and for all his faults, Zeke liked being a person and not a cold creature capable only of killing.

Responding in slightly broken Japanese, as that was one of the many languages he hadn't mastered yet, he kneeled down to push the money back at her. “For a pretty princess like you, I'd kill a thousand men. Take me to him, and I will make sure he can never cage you again.” He saw no reason not to help when this was literally part of his job description.

Little Kimiko-chan, as she was called, was also absolutely adorable even with the bruise marking the side of her face. Although Zeke could see the signs of more, that limp wasn't because of her crumbling shoes.

They arrived at her home, and while some might look down on it for it's shabby state, Zeke knew what it was like to not have a roof over his head, so he was just glad that the little lady didn't have to experience that.

After asking Kimiko-chan if she wanted to keep the house afterwards, and nodding understandingly when she replied no, he forced open the door while pulling a knife from his belt. He'd use one of his guns, but knives were harder to track and he wanted to leave no signs that he had been the one to do this.

It wouldn't do for any of his enemies to find out about his fondness for children, they might try to hold one hostage to make him walk into a trap. It had already happened once, and the poor kid had taken ages to stop having nightmares from what his new mother had informed him.

(It had been his fault the kid didn't have any family anymore, the least he could do was make sure he had someone to take care of him. That, and it had taken him two months to hunt down everybody involved in the whole thing, which had been a pain in the ass and a waste of bullets. Good thing they were nice enough to provide him with their own after he killed the first few.)

Making sure the little lady was behind him, Zeke strode confidentially into the house. Sure, some guy might get lucky with a knife, but one thing Zeke had been careful to keep in check was his ego, which meant that when a metal pipe came out of nowhere to swing at his face, the assassin was prepared and leaned back to let it pass in front of his face.

Moving forwards with the speed of the snake he'd been named after in the assassination world, his knife darted between the drunks arms to sink into the man's chest, striking his heart with deadly accuracy. The drunk piece of shit gurgled once, the dropped like a stone. Knowing that would happen, Zeke had kept a tight hold of his knife, watching dispasionately as the now dead man lay bleeding out on the floor.

A sound from behind made him focus more of his attention on Kimiko-chan, and the shocked look on her face didn't surprise him in the least. Abusive parents seemed untouchable when you're younger, and seeing him take down her father had probably taken her by surprise, despite knowing that he did this for a living.

The smile that slowly took over her face did make him cock his head in interest, as most children would have started crying in relief at this point. God knows he had, and he'd been nearly a decade older than the little lady when his dad had pissed off the wrong guy one too many times and finally ended up shot.

“Well then little lady, what do you want to do now?” At first, it seemed like she hadn't heard him, eyes focused on her now dead father as his blood started spreading in a pool around him. It was a gruesome sight for most, but Zeke would bet that this was nothing short of theraputic for Kimiko-chan.

Shaking her head a little, she looked up with him, still smiling. One of her front teeth was missing, either from the punch she took to the face, or just because she was at the age when she first starts losing her baby teeth.

“I want to do what you just did, Shinigami-sama.”

She didn't mean the killing, Zeke didn't doubt that she didn't really understand the concept of death despite having seem people die before. No, this was about being able to take out a man she'd seen as immortal with a single blow.

She wanted the power to take care of herself, and Zeke really couldn't blame her. Besides, all cool assassins had protégé's that took over for them when they eventually retired, whether from old age or death. Hell, he might even be able to turn the Snake into a myth, the immortal Snake that never died and never missed a target.

Zeke wasn't a nice person, but the little lady didn't need him to be.


	2. The Snake and the Little Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There a concequences when one of the worlds deadliest assassins adopts a young girl, these are just a few of them.
> 
> Zeke wasn't a nice person, but Kimiko made him a good one. Includes whispers on the streets of Tokyo, a phone number spread across America and helping each other deal with the harsh parts of the assassin life when you have somebody to care for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this was meant to be a one-shot. I don't know where this second chapter came from, but I'm not complaining xD  
> This is not beta-read and it's late, so there might be a mistake or two. Maybre three, I'll check tomorrow ;p

Zeke wasn't a nice man, but for his little lady he could be a good one.

Just for her though, he'd gotten attached. When he'd first noticed that his feelings for Kimiko-chan went beyond protective ones and had a slight fond tint to them, he filed away the observation and went about his business.

He needed something or someone to keep him human, and caring for a traumatized six year-old along with making sure she could keep her culture was a good way to go about it. The assassin needed to do in-depth research into Japanese culture and the habits one formed living in it, since if he was going to do this he might as well do it right.

It took a few months, but after much talking, learning and a few mishaps, Zeke and Kimi-chan had settled into something of a father-daughter relationship. He took care of most of her needs like clothes and food, while also teaching her anything she might need for the life she'd chosen.

She did some mild exercises in the morning and before bed to build up her endurance, strength and flexibility, made sure she knew how to find shelter, food and water in most situations, ranging from forests to big cities, and taught her all about self-awareness and healthy comping mechanisms that would help her with the grisly aspects of the assassin life.

All in all, Zeke was doing a pretty good at this being human and raising a child thing while still taking contracts. Since he didn't trust a baby-sitter to take care of Kimi-chan properly, he either took her along or left her to her own devices in places where it was safe for a child to stay for a couple of hours.

The best way to learn was on the job, and getting her used to seeing death while she was still young would make sure she didn't freak out when it was her turn to pull the trigger. It also taught her all the little tricks that made for a clean job which were best learned while doing, such as marking exit routes and blending into the background.

Zeke wasn't an idiot, he wasn't going to make her watch through a scope as he blew some guy's brains out, but also didn't refuse when she asked for the scope herself. Making her use one that was screwed onto an unloaded sniper rifle only let her get used to the feel of a gun in her hands, even if she looked a bit strange with the over-sized rifle.

–

For Kimi-chan's seventh birthday, he gave her a knife. She was still too young to be able to wield a gun, the recoil on even the smaller calibre would wreak havoc on her arm, but with a knife that wasn't a problem. Putting enough strength behind it to do proper damage was, but that was what slicing was for.

So along with the knife came lessons on how to use it. He'd gotten started on teaching her some defensive moves a few months ago, in case someone grabbed her or tried something she didn't like. He'd even sung her a little lullaby, counting off all the big weak spots of the human body while pointing them out.

Her giggle had been adorable, and he'd sung the song again just to hear more of it. She'd become his one big weakness, but in a few years she'd be able to protect herself just fine against most opponent at least long enough to run and contact him. Until then he'd guard her with all the ferocity of a dragon.

–

In the end, he didn't end up starting up the myth of the immortal Snake. Instead they became legends, the Snake and his Little Death, an assassin duo that were as cold as their were deadly. They struck from nowhere, in hundreds of different ways, but always with the same result. A completed contract.

That was how the assassin world remembered them. For others, it was a whole different story. On the streets of Tokyo, there are stories about a man walks the streets at certain times that can help you if you need it.

(After years spent caring for his little lady, the snake had become a good man, if not a nice one.)

And in America, there is a number written or scratched onto bathroom walls and benched and trees. It has crowns on the zeros and sixes, and if you call it someone with come to help you. Sometimes it will be with a bullet, other times with carefully delivered pictures. Either way, you will get the help you need, even if you don't know what you need.

–

It was going to happen sometime. It hadn't been either of their faults, and Zeke pushed aside his guilt for not protecting Kimi-chan from this to deal with later.

They'd been preparing for a job, but some bad info had slipped past them, and their hiding spots had been discovered. Zeke had gotten away, but only just, and only because of his years of experience. He knew with a sinking feeling that Kimiko-chan wouldn't have gotten away, she was simple too young.

He managed to get her out after killing their original target to create a distraction, but by then they'd had her for several hours, and they had not been kind. He'd taken her to a hospital, the last place anyone would look for them, and several hundred dollars kept anyone that questioned them silent.

They'd fixed her up as best as they could, and two days later he left, taking the young woman that he considered a daughter with him. She'd woken up several times, but was still silent as the grave.

Even with all his training and advice, several hours of torture were not something that anyone was prepared to deal with the first time, so he just gave her two hours to get settled in their safe-house before knocking on her door.

“Hime-chan? Can I come in?” They mostly spoke English these days, but her native Japanese still brought her the most comfort. He heard her footsteps approach the door, a slight frown creasing his brow before quickly smoothing out before Kimi-chan could unlock the door. She was near-silent when she walked these days, this really had hit her hard.

Slowly turning the doorknob, Zeke ran through every important piece of information he'd read or learned about comforting woman after violent and traumatic experiences along with what he knew about Kimi-chan herself before pushing open the door.

She stood in the middle of her room, hugging one of her various plushes to her chest. She loved the fluffy stuffed toys, and seeing her slight flinch when he moved to step into the room, he sat down in the opening, leaving enough room for her to pass him if she wanted to. Cutting off her escape routes would be the worst thing to do at the moment.

“Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want me to sit here and keep guard while you let off some steam?” He had some idea how most women would react to this kind of situation, he'd done a lot of research, but Kimi-chan needed a special approach because of her upbringing.

The young woman didn't answer him, just sat down with her back against her bed and buried her face in her plush. From the miniscule shaking of her shoulders and uneven breaths, Zeke found it safe to assume that she was crying, and took a second to suppress the urge to walk inside and hug her.

This was about Hime-chan and her needs, not him. He could deal with it later in the basement with a punching bag and a long hot shower after, right now his ward needed him to keep watch. Settling down in a position that he could stay in for hours and still react in time for just about anything, Zeke prepared for a long wait.

–

It took Zeke two weeks, several long hours of conversation and many tears and hugs to help Kimiko-chan start on the road to recovery from her ordeal. It hadn't been just torture that had gotten to her, it had also been the shock of it all. All of their missions had gone perfectly before, this one going disastrously wrong had shook her and lowered her defences.

In the end, Zeke hadn't even needed to beat the shit out of a punching-bag as he'd ended up confessing about the guilt he felt for both not catching the bad info and not protecting Kimiko, despite knowing that everybody made mistakes and that he'd been ten kilometres away from her when they'd been ambushed.

They helped each other in their own ways. Others would say that the way they did things was wrong, that Zeke had dammed Kimiko-chan that day when he'd taken her with him, that the way they dealt with things was wrong, that they committed one sin after another.

But they were family, no matter how strangely they'd come about, and family sticks together.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Used: You are an assassin. A little girl has just come up to you, handed you all her pocket money and asked you to kill her abusive relative.
> 
> Also, I was going to write a little list of how I imagined things would go after this, but it turned into another chapter xD


End file.
